


Selkies

by rainbowtourmaline



Series: Zutara Week 2017 - My Favourite Things [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Humor, Little Mermaid Elements, Mermaids, Please read author's notes for trigger warnings, Romance, Season 1 Fanfiction, Season/Series 01, Selkies, Smoochy smoochy, Zuko's in love, Zutara Week, Zutara Week - Underwater, Zutara Week 2017, mothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-24
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-12-05 22:06:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11587122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowtourmaline/pseuds/rainbowtourmaline
Summary: Most people would be perturbed by the sight of their nephew walking up on deck completely soaked, shivering and breathing fire through their nose – but this was a sight Iroh had gotten used to the last couple of weeks while he helped Prince Zuko search for the Avatar. The old ex-general took a sip of his warm and bracing ginseng tea and asked a question he already knew the answer to: “What happened Prince Zuko?”Zuko blasted another steam of fire from his nose.“Mermaids.”





	Selkies

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings/Triggers:  
> \- One instance of one dude being creepy.  
> \- One instance of mild violence.
> 
> These trigger warnings probably make the one-shot seem a lot scarier than it is, but these instances only happen at the end of the story and the rest of it is Little Mermaid fluff with a happy ending. :)

Most people would be perturbed by the sight of their nephew walking up on deck completely soaked, shivering and breathing fire through their nose – but this was a sight Iroh had gotten used to the last couple of weeks while he helped Prince Zuko search for the Avatar. The old ex-general took a sip of his warm and bracing ginseng tea and asked a question he already knew the answer to: “What happened Prince Zuko?”

Zuko blasted another steam of fire from his nose.

“Mermaids.” Zuko growled quietly, before he slowly but surely walked towards his room to have a nice hot shower and probably some food with a little coaxing from Uncle Iroh.

Iroh witnessed Zuko tangle with this ‘mermaid’ many times before and noted that the young lady wasn’t actually a mermaid – she was a selkie. Selkies often live as seals or half-seals while underwater and could shed their skin to become human on land. This young selkie called Katara had decided to become the Avatar’s ally and would use her skills in the water to thwart Zuko’s every attempt at catching the Avatar, along with her human brother Sokka.   

Iroh had been tempted to correct Zuko many times when he uttered ‘mermaid’ like it was a dirty word, but given that the subject was a sore one for Zuko – Iroh wisely kept his mouth shut.

* * *

 

Uncle Iroh’s heart nearly jumped out of his throat when Zuko came back to the ship with a black eye and a limp.

“PRINCE ZUKO!” Iroh grabbed his face to check it and asked again: “What happened?”

Zuko’s golden eyes were aflame with fury, and more smoke was coming out of his nostrils and quite possibly his ears.

_“Mermaids.”_

Ah.

While Iroh escorted Zuko to the healer’s room and brewed him his favourite tea, he made a note to keep an eye on both Zuko and the selkie – otherwise this rivalry could turn very ugly, very quickly.

* * *

 

Iroh caught one glimpse of Zuko’s swollen, blotchy face and burst out laughing.

He immediately recognised the sea creatures splayed on the left side of Prince Zuko’s cheek and forehead, they were a variety of prickly underwater critters that were beautiful to look at but were poisonous to the touch. Prince Zuko wouldn’t die from these wounds as the ship was well stocked with various antidotes and medicines, but he’d have a terrible and itchy time of getting rid of them. Iroh would be spending may hours taking care of his equally prickly nephew and despite the fact he knew he would be trapped with Zuko in a small room and his foul temper, he would never get over the comical sight of his nephew’s puffy eyes, lips and cheeks - and that angered his screaming nephew to no end.

“MERMAIDS ARE CRAZY!”

The little sea creatures popped off Zuko’s face and swam back to the ocean from once they came, as Zuko boiled like a steaming hot teapot.    

* * *

 

Uncle Iroh immediately regretted laughing at his nephew’s misfortune.

“There, there Prince Zuko, I’ve made you a pot of ginseng tea.” Iroh didn’t call the broody teenager’s favourite tea his favourite as the boy liked to pretend he had no preference for his Uncle’s preferred brew, but nonetheless Iroh served him a whole teapot of the stuff anyway. Iroh knew that his attempts to cheer Zuko up often fell flat and sometimes further irritated the young prince, but looking at that sad frown on his face compelled Iroh to at least try. “You know, ginseng was your mother’s favourite.”

Zuko loved quietly listening to stories about his mum when he thought no one was watching him pay attention to Iroh’s stories in the break room, but Iroh nearly dropped his teapot when he thought he heard his nephew sob.

“She also liked drinking green tea when she was sick.” Iroh said, trying to pretend he didn’t see two streaks of tears falling down his nephew’s face – as he thought the boy would have preferred that to having someone acknowledge he was feeling vulnerable. “I don’t know if it would soothe itchy skin, but-”

“Please stop talking about mother.” Zuko cried in thick, weepy voice.

When Zuko was upset or angry, Iroh always tried an indirect approach to making his nephew feel better but when he saw that his nephew was truly in pain – he threw out his own rule book. Iroh moved his chair right next to Zuko’s and put an arm around his shoulder.

“Zuko, what’s wrong?” the old general asked in soothing tones. He gave the boy a couple of minutes to gather his thoughts, while his brow creased in thought.

“I’m _frustrated_.” Zuko said, taking a gulp of fresh sea air as Iroh had picked the seaside as their afternoon tea spot. “So, so frustrated.”

“Why?” Iroh asked.

“I want my throne back, I want my title, and…” Zuko sobbed again, clenching his teeth and pounding the table with his fist. “I want to find my mum. I want to know what happened to her, even if I won’t like the answer I get. And I can’t do that without the Avatar, but every time I get even close to him, she-”

Zuko stopped himself as more angry tears leaked from his eyelids. It was like Zuko was the five-year-old boy Iroh used to hold in his arms whenever he fell down and smarted his knees on the hard gravel, and Iroh was tempted to give Zuko yet another much needed hug. He didn’t deserve this, he shouldn’t have had to have prove that he was-

Just was Iroh was about to pull Zuko in his arms, he saw a flash of a tail bobbing out the water to swim far away from land.    

“Uncle?” Iroh could hear Zuko sniff away his tears.

The old general finally drew Zuko into a hug, made sure his head was turned away from the sea and whispered the following: “My boy, sometimes life is like a dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving, you will come to a better place.”  

* * *

 When Zuko fell overboard trying to protect another crew member from drowning during a harsh and terrible storm that pelted rain drops on them like arrows, Iroh felt like he had lost yet another son.

He went back into General Iroh, Dragon of The West mode as he ordered the crew to do everything in their power to retrieve Zuko from the harsh and unforgiving sea – but it was no use. The current was too strong and the crew was too small to deal with such a natural disaster on their own among a vast ocean that made them feel like they were little more than small school of fish.

But Iroh believed hope was something you gave yourself in darkest times, and he was not about to give up on his nephew yet. With tired and aching bones, he gave himself the strength to go looking for Zuko in the hopes that his nephew would have washed up on the shore of the closest beach.

“Sir, we’ve been looking for the Prince for hours.” Lieutenant Jee put an arm on the old man’s shoulder as the sun was setting, painting a scene similar to the one where Iroh told his nephew to always look for the light at the end of the tunnel. “I don’t think we’re going to find him.”

Iroh wanted to give up and resign himself to going back to that dark tunnel he escaped when Lu-Ten died, until that familiar sight of a selkie tail caught his eye again. He saw it waving behind a cluster of rocks and heard the sound of a familiar voice vomiting up whatever sea-crud he had ingested while he nearly drowned.

Iroh ignored his old, tired bones and ran towards the sound until he was welcomed by the sight of a selkie wiping her lips and grimacing at her gross nephew, before she spotted Uncle Iroh. The girl didn’t move even when Iroh ran towards Zuko to gather him in his arms.  

“Ugh…” Prince Zuko wheezed. “Uncle. Is that you?”

“Yes it is my nephew, yes it is.” Iroh cried tears of joy as he cuddled him, ignoring the selkie and the rambunctious crew members celebrating behind them or running off to tell the others the good news.

Prince Zuko on the other hand, was more aware of the selkie’s presence.

“Wait.” He said in a croaky voice. Iroh opened his eyes, turned towards where his nephew’s hand was reaching out to and saw Katara the selkie hovering in between land and sea. “Don’t go.”

Now maybe it was the adrenaline of finding his nephew after he presumed the broody teenager to be dead, maybe it was the fact that Iroh liked to enjoy mushy romance novels when Prince Zuko and the crew had gone to bed, or maybe Iroh was just desperate for his nephew to take a romantic interest in someone – _anyone_. But Iroh’s heart skipped a beat when Zuko called out to Katara in a voice that almost seemed like it was longing for the selkie.

“Why?” the prince asked, in a tired and confused voice.

Iroh’s eyes darted between the two enemies, trying to absorb as much information from their interactions as he could. The girl looked cautious, almost shy as she considered just swimming back into the ocean without a word as she didn’t owe the prince anything.

Iroh thanked the selkie from the bottom of his heart when she decided to do the exact opposite:

“I won’t let you take Aang to the Fire Nation. I _will_ make sure Aang fulfils his destiny and defeats the Fire Lord.” The water tribe girl said, proud and strong in front of the men who were supposed to be her enemies. “But I hope you get to see your mum again. I really do.”

The sun chose this moment to shine a romantic, soft glow on Katara’s smile as she swam back into the ocean, leaving Zuko completely stunned and rosy cheeked as he watched her leave and swim out of his life for Agni knows how long.   

* * *

 

Everyone on the ship had heard about Zuko’s fateful rescue.

“I heard she kissed him.” One crew member said excitedly.

“I heard they made love on the beach and now she’s pregnant with his spawn.” The other said with too much enthusiasm.

“So there we were, looking for Prince Zuko and out she comes from the sea half naked, carrying him bridal style!” General Iroh rolled his eyes at the junior healer’s romantic version of events.  

The rumours gave Iroh a headache and he gave everyone a long talk about how gossiping was fine if it made passing the time easier, but he was _not_ going to help if Zuko had overheard a particularly scandalous piece of gossip. Like the one this shipmate had uttered in the break room:

“I heard that if Prince Zuko kisses her, he will turn into a mermaid too!” he cried right when Zuko had decided to sit down and have a break from his princely duties. Lucky for this shipmate though, the prince had been quiet, soft and subdued ever since the incident that was subject of all the crew member’s tall tales occurred - deep in thought and hardly raising his voice to anyone for days. 

“Actually, she’s a selkie.” Everyone in the room, even the most rambunctious and loudest of sailors got real quiet when the prince calmly corrected his crew as he sipped his ginseng tea. “Not a mermaid.”

While the crew was content to look at Zuko like he had turned into a hogmonkey right before their very eyes, one of the younger shipmates who was closer to Zuko’s age decided to drunkenly destroy the calm, wistful atmosphere Zuko’s comment had created.

“Man, selkies are _hot._ ” He slurred as he slung his arm around a disgusted Zuko’s shoulder. “And if you steal their hides they become your wife!”

Iroh was very aware of this part of the mythology behind selkies – but he did not like where this conversation was going and from the way Zuko gritted his teeth, the prince didn’t seem to be fond of the idea either.

 “To be honest sir, I wouldn’t mind stealing her hide to get a peak at her _hide_ if you know what I mean, hehehe.” The young man slurred. “If only all women were that easy, huh?”

Iroh could see Zuko boiling up like a teapot once again, only this time his face was much redder and the flames were coming out of his nostrils were as bright as freshly spilt blood on fresh snow. Prince Zuko had been angry before but he had never been this angry and what he did next shocked even Iroh, as he ripped the shipmate’s arm off his shoulder, grabbed the bottle of whisky he was holding and proceeded to smash the bottle over his head.

This time the room’s silence was deafening.

“Back to work!” Zuko shouted and all the crew mates scrambled to put away their food and drink, and importantly to hide from their prince's wrath. Zuko walked over the perverted shipmate’s unconscious body and barked: “And get this idiot a healer! We’ll dump him on shore when he’s recovered.”

‘Ah.’ Iroh thought as he breathed in the scent of his tea, unaffected by the surrounding chaos. ‘My nephew is back to normal.’

But hopefully not to the point where he’d refuse to take that nice selkie out for afternoon tea sometime.


End file.
